Deck Profile: Jessy Samek’s Herald of Perfection Deck

May 15th, 2010

When former SHONEN JUMP Championship winner Jessy Samek gave me his Decklist, I couldn’t help but laugh. Samek is running 3 copies of Happy Lover and 3 copies of Mokey Mokey in his Main Deck. But underneath the non-threatening appearance of his super-cute monsters lies an incredible power.

Monsters: 25

3 Happy Lover

3 Mokey Mokey

1 Mystical Shine Ball

3 Herald of Perfection

3 Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands

3 Senju of the Thousand Hands

3 Sonic Bird

2 Honest

1 Consecrated Light

3 Archlord Kristya

Spells: 12

1 Advanced Ritual Art

3 Preparation of Rites

3 Dark Factory of Mass Production

1 Dawn of the Herald

1 Giant Truande

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Pot of Avarice

Traps: 4

1 Royal Decree

1 Royal Oppression

1 Mirror Force

1 Beckoning Light

The main goal of Samek’s Deck is to Summon Herald of Perfection as quickly as possible. Samek uses 3 copies each of Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands, Senju of the Thousand Hands, and Sonic Bird to speed up its Summon. With them, he can search his Deck for Herald of Perfection and Advanced Ritual Art. That’s when things get really cool.

Samek uses Advanced RitualArt to send his Normal Monster Fairies from his Deck to his Graveyard and Summon Herald of Perfection. Happy Lover and Mystical Shine Ball are both Normal Level 2 Fairy-Type Monsters, while Mokey Mokey is a Normal Level 1 Fairy-Type Monster. That means Samek is able to send 3 or 4 Normal Fairies from his Deck to his Graveyard using a single copy of Advanced Ritual Art! That lets him Special Summon one of his 3 Main Decked copies of Archlord Kristya right away. He can also use Kristya’s effect to bring back one of the Fairies he dumped to the Graveyard. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the awesome combos Samek’s Deck is capable of.

Using Preparation of Rites, Samek can recycle Advanced Ritual Art from his Graveyard and grab Herald of Perfection from his Deck. If he activates Pot of Avarice to send his Normal monsters back to his Deck, he can reuse his Advanced Ritual Art to send the Fairies back to the Graveyard and get another Ritual Summon.

Samek also plays a copy of Dawn of the Herald, which he can retrieve with Preparation of Rites. Samek can use Dawn of the Herald to Ritual Summon Herald of Perfection by giving up monsters he doesn’t need.

Samek can also do a lot more with the low-Level Normal Fairies he draws. Herald of Perfection requires Samek to discard a Fairy-Type Monster to activate its incredible negation effect, and he can discard any of his low-Level monsters to feed its power. Since Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands and Senju of the Thousand Hands are both Fairies too, Samek’s Deck runs a whopping 22 Fairy-Type monsters to make sure he always has a monster to discard with his Herald’s effect.

Samek can also boost his Happy Lover and Mokey Mokey with Honest, enabling them to take down even the strongest of his opponent’s monsters when necessary. He also runs a copy of Beckoning Light, which lets him trade the low-Level Fairies he can’t put to use, for stronger monsters like Archlord Kristya and Honest, which can win him the Duel. Just in case he runs out of Fairies to discard, Samek runs Dark Factory of Mass Production, which lets him bring back 2 of his Normal Fairy-Type monsters.

Once Samek brings out his Herald of Perfection, the Duel is just about over. Without being able to successfully use Spells, Traps, or Monster Effects, his opponents have a really tough time taking down his 2800 DEF Fairy. For a lot of Decks, including Infernities, taking it down without the use of Spells, Traps and Monster Effects is impossible. Herald of Perfection locks up the Match and gives Samek all the time he needs to Summon Kristya and finally end the Duel.

Samek’s innovative Deck will take a lot of Duelists by surprise today. Some won’t know what to do when they’re locked down by Herald of Perfection and others will realize there’s simply nothing they can do. If Samek is successful with his Herald Deck, we may see Happy Lover and Mokey Mokey make their first Day 2 appearances!